Tuesday, June 10, 2008

K! My day!Woke up, left Joshua (who came home from work at 4am) in bed, showered, made lunches, brought girls to their synagogue/preschool camp, left car seats in hallway.Came home, finished packing Razi's plastic "footlocker" thing (a small plastic trunk, really), printed out directions, hung out, ate food, wasted time till around 11:30 or so.Got in car, headed off to the sleepaway camp. Drove for a long time.Realized the directions had confused me and turned around and went back about 5 or 10 miles.Got to camp and saw they were turning people around. Got to front gate to get instructions. Heard that they are "too muddy" for us (and the gazillions of other parents) to park, needed to go down a bit and park at the little restaurant we just passed. A school bus will come get us.Got to tiny restaurant and quickly saw this isn't going to work at all. Heard from other parent who is giving up that we need to go down the road to "some church at M-- and L--."Headed down M-- a ways.Saw a church at "T" of M-- and L--, and two dark-haired girls in matching purple t-shirts at the entrance to the lot. Felt sure we'd found right place.We had.We waited.For a long time.They put tags on Razi's stuff. He was going to be in cabin 11.I knitted.They got a lot of the girl's stuff.We waited.They came by again with a rental truck and picked up... girl's stuff.Razi looked for bugs.(We have a photo of us waiting by the van, but Joshua hasn't emailed it to me yet.)Many more cars came in the lot.A school bus took a bunch of kids and parents and younger siblings to the camp.Razi and Joshua looked at a catalog that had come in the mail for us this morning.Another bus left.I knitted some more.They told us that they would make certain that no one but them took Razi's things and we should probably go wait for a school bus because it wouldn't be long at all now.Razi was shockingly patient.We got on line for the bus.A bus filled up and left.The one right behind it did too.I finished a row of knitting and went back to put my knitting bag back in the van.The pair of busses filled and left again.Razi was oblivious (we hope) of the conversation right behind us between two women talking about how one of them sent a daughter to some sleepaway camp and the kid was bullied and miserable and got into a lot of fights.I cut in line a little hoping to get the heck away from them. It didn't really work.A bus came and filled up and then we were just about at the front of the line. (With just one teenage boy and his parents ahead of us.)A bus came. We got on. Joshua sat with Razi and I sat alone.Someone sat next to me and we chatted a bit on the way to the camp.Her son had gone to a different Jewish summer camp but then they moved and her daughter started this camp and adored it. Today was the start of her 4th year.We got there and went into what must be the mess hall.It was painfully loud.A lady had a microphone and was yelling at us to "Come over here! Here! The line starts here!" But her voice was coming from speakers in the ceiling and I couldn't find her. Even after we found the right place she was yelling so loud that I couldn't get Joshua or Razi’s attention without touching them.They gave him a name tag.They checked him for lice!He didn’t have any.They asked if he was nervous. I said he wasn’t.We talked to the nurse.We'd left the Alavert in the car. (We are so dumb.)She was really calm about it. She put a note in a ziplock bag and told us to get the Alavert, bring it to the front gate and give it, in the bag with the note, to a counselor and say "for nurse Wendy."We escaped the screaming building.We asked directions three times, and finally found cabin 11.Our shoes got pretty muddy but we couldn’t see why we hadn’t been able to park there earlier.Razi has the top of a triple bunk bed!Very, very cool. A kid ran over and said "My name is Max. Do you want to be my friend?" Joshua and I pushed Razi to answer. He said "yes" and bouncing smiling Max took Razi’s picture.Razi grinned like a madman for Max’s picture.Razi explored his bed and the cabin and met two or three of the four counselors in his bunk.Razi was about as happy as I have ever seen him.I made his bed and put some of his stuff on his shelf.I counted bunks. Fourteen 8 year old boys.We talked to a couple of counselors.Joshua helped Razi find the bathroom.We found Razi’s flashlight and he put it where he would find it if he needed the bathroom in the middle of the night.Razi escaped while we were finishing in the cabin.Joshua got worried that Razi would wander off and get lost while he was at camp.Joshua worries a lot.Razi was right outside, wrist deep in mud, talking with counselor Evan.Joshua and I think Evan is a junior counselor, about 16 yrs old?We took a picture of Razi showing off his muddy hands.Razi went back to playing in the mud.We said goodbye, but I do not think he noticed.We walked back, waited, caught the school bus, brought back the Alavert, went to Trader Joe's (because hey, it was there), drove all the way home (a lot of it in construction and rush hour traffic) brought in the groceries and walked over to get the girls from Becky’s house.Lilah was a tired, miserable little grump.Zora was extremely well behaved and slow as cold molasses.I wrestled the baby beast into her pjs and she fell asleep in between demands for more food, more apple juice, more D, D, Dora and the dragon video!I read bedtime stories to Zora.We let her go to sleep in her big brother's bed. Joshua went to work.